Having watched the polls ruin the voter turnout in BC during our last provincial election, seeing that few progressives bothered to vote at all, since the polls were showing a vast majority for the NDP..I am no fan of the damn things…

Having watched the polls ruin the voter turnout in BC during our last provincial election, seeing that few progressives bothered to vote at all, since the polls were showing a vast majority for the NDP..I am no fan of the damn things…

Greetings loyal blog readers! I am happy to report that today’s Toronto Star contains a letter of mine (the first of the two on this page) about the Ontario Court of Appeal decision on expat voting rights. Rather than address this issue directly, I briefly examine the related matter of extending the franchise to non-citizens . . . → Read More: Song of the Watermelon: Toronto Star Letter

As the debates over the debates has raged on over the past several months, one thing is becoming increasingly clear. Journalists in Canada seem to be throwing out their duty of independence and holding our political parties to account for political favors; thus Canadians can’t rely on the media to do their traditional role of […] . . . → Read More: Mind Bending Politics: Big Media Influencing Canadian Election For Political Favoritism

That is the question Don Graves asks in his hard-hitting lead letter printed in this morning’s Star. Enjoy. I look out my window and see sunshine and vibrant signs of approaching spring. There’s even a Toronto sports franchise winning games.

Responding to the latest propaganda piece about taxation levels from The Fraser Institute, Star readers weigh in with their own perspectives, one of which includes taking the paper to task for publishing news of the report with no critical comment:

How did we let our bus fleet get into this bad a shape and why is Chow the only “major” candidate proposing anything to fix it? The Toronto Star has today published a piece finding problems in the feasibility of Olivia Chow’s promise to improve bus ser… . . . → Read More: Autonomy For All: The Forest On Chow’s Bus Pledge Problems

It looks like the government are growing desperate to stifle the growing debate about CSEC’s spying on Canadians. Now they’ve imposed a lifelong gag order on bureaucrats who might shed light on what CSEC has been up to.

This hard-hitting piece by Professor Michael Geist argues for a full, independent investigation into CSEC’s spying activities. As Parliament is set to resume shortly, the time has come for MPs to take a far greater interest in what our security services are doing in our name.

The Toronto Star recently featured the 2013 Atkinson Series: Me, You, Us, journalist and author Michael Valpy’s investigation into social cohesion in Canada — what binds us together, what pulls us apart.

There is the sound of champagne corks being popped and cheers in the streets. Everyone smiles at each other and winks, knowing that soon it will all be over. The hated burgermeister is falling and no one, except perhaps his family, will be sad to see h… . . . → Read More: RedBedHead: Bye Bye Rob Ford, Hello Karen Stintz

There is the sound of champagne corks being popped and cheers in the streets. Everyone smiles at each other and winks, knowing that soon it will all be over. The hated burgermeister is falling and no one, except perhaps his family, will be sad to see him go. And he has been felled by none . . . → Read More: RedBedHead: Bye Bye Rob Ford, Hello Karen Stintz

Up next after the city hall politics panel in the Toronto Star tent at the Word on the Street festival on Sunday was the federal politics panel. On hand were Toronto Star federal politics columnists Chantal Hebert, Tim Harper and Tom Walkom. The topic? “Stephen Harper vs. Justin Trudeau and Tom Mulcair.”

Continuing my run of political Sundays, I spent the afternoon yesterday in the shadow of Queen’s Park in downtown Toronto, where a number of panels and discussions at the Word on the Street took on a political theme.

It is always heartening to me, and I am sure to countless others, to see that some members of the Canadian electorate are not asleep at the proverbial wheel but instead busy exercising their critical-thinking skills. Peter Dick of Toronto is one such citizen. Not content to blithely and blindly accept the official mythology . . . → Read More: Politics and its Discontents: He Certainly Has Mr. Harper’s Number

Taking a moment to pray for peace You gotta admit that it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Rob Ford is a bully and a hypocrite – quick to condemn the perceived weakness of others, to pounce on the supposed privileges of unionized workers or the effet… . . . → Read More: RedBedHead: The Fall Of The House Of Ford

You gotta admit that it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Rob Ford is a bully and a hypocrite – quick to condemn the perceived weakness of others, to pounce on the supposed privileges of unionized workers or the effete absurdity of riding a bicycle instead of driving . . . → Read More: RedBedHead: The Fall Of The House Of Ford

The Toronto Star reports that the emails and telephone records in Rob Ford’s office, which may reveal information about the mayor’s crack cocaine scandal, are disappearing. They were ordered destroyed this week.

The post Rob Ford’s former staffers’ emails, telephone records ordered destroyed: sources appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.